Name: Elena And Cressie Get Ready For The Party 6
Brand: Julian Opie
Rating: 5 (236 reviews)

Track auction value trend

Julian Opie's screenprint, Elena And Cressie Get Ready For The Party 6 (signed), created in 2011, is estimated to be valued between £1,700 and £2,600. This artwork has shown consistent value growth, with an average annual growth rate of 3%. The hammer price over the past five years has ranged from £2,618 in November 2022 to £3,442 in May 2021. This work is part of a limited edition of 30 and has been sold 5 times at auction since its initial sale in January 2019.

Meaning & Analysis

Elena And Cressie Get Ready For The Party 6 is a print from Julian Opie’s Elena And Cressie Get Ready For The Party series from 2011 and shows a close-up portrait of a young girl smiling. This portrait is an example of Opie’s late graphic style where details such a tonal contour on the sitter’s face, teeth and eyelashes are included, rendered through his classic technique of drawing over photographs on the computer to reduce and abstract the original.

Speaking of his development in style Opie has said, "The first drawings were very simple, but that gave me a language on which to build. They started as black and white, with very pared-down parameters – the mouth was just a straight line and so on – and bit by bit I adjusted it until it seemed like the right balance between someone real and this generic form."

Elena And Cressie Get Ready For The Party 6, with its use of colour and inclusion of finer details, is representative of the way in which Opie toes the line between reality and representation. The sitter is startling in her uncanny appearance and is presented like an image one might find in a comic book or animation programme. Opie’s depersonalised touch further emphasises this paradox between familiarity and the unknown, the sitter’s eyes shining but filled with emptiness, looking off into nothing.

Julian Opie, born in 1958, dances through the contemporary art scene with a distinctive digital allure. A trailblazer of the 1980s New British Sculpture movement, Opie's work is a highly stylised blend of Pop Art and minimalism which navigates the intersection of technology and visual expression. From his early experiments with computer-generated art to his iconic portraits and animated installations, Opie's work exudes a captivating simplicity. His signature style, marked by bold lines and reduced forms, is internationally recognisable and has made him a key player in British contemporary art.